There are many vehicles which are used by a number of passengers, some of whom may be handicapped. Vehicles of this type are frequently operated by Local Councils, or Core Homes and the vehicles may transport patients who have various types of physical and/or mental handicap, some of whom may be in wheelchairs.
The provision of a seat fitting for a vehicle of this type presents the fitting designer with many challenges. An ideal seat fitting has a squab and a backrest in a conventional format so that the seat can be utilized by a seat occupant who has no physical handicap, the seat fitting being configured to provide a degree of protection to the seat occupant if the vehicle is provided in a front impact or in a rear impact.
Also the ideal seat fitting should be adaptable for use with a wheelchair.
A seat fitting of this type may be designed so that the squab of the seat may be moved away from its first or “ordinary” position, with the backrest then being positioned so that the space in front of the backrest is unobstructed. Then a wheelchair may be brought up against the fitting, with a padded part of the fitting lying immediately behind the backrest of the wheelchair, and in such a way that a safety belt provided on the fitting may embrace the occupant of the wheelchair. In this way the safety belt may provide protection in the case of a front impact of the vehicle, and the part of the fitting located behind the backrest of the wheelchair will minimize the risk of the wheelchair occupant moving rearwardly out of the wheelchair in the event that a rear impact should occur.
Wheelchairs come in many different sizes, adult wheelchairs being relatively broad and some child wheelchairs being very narrow. The rearwardly projecting handles on the wheelchairs may thus have very different spacings between them.
The space available within a typical vehicle as used for the transport of handicapped people is generally limited and is often necessary to move a wheelchair, together with the wheelchair occupant, from the rear of the vehicle past a seat fitting of the type described above before the wheelchair can be manoeuver into position with the backrest of the wheel chair located just in front of part of the fitting.
The design of the ideal fitting would take all of these factors into account.
Whilst various fittings have been proposed previously, all commercially available fittings have one or more drawbacks.